Queen Scarlet
Ex-Queen Scarlet was an adult female SkyWing who reigned as queen for twenty-nine years. She was vain and cruel, that being shown when she kills the seven SkyWing eggs on the Brightest night. The SkyWing's current queen is her daughter, Ruby, whose true self was revealed to be Tourmaline, one of Scarlet's daughters that had gone missing years ago, when Scarlet and Ruby where dueling for the SkyWing throne. Scarlet was the main antagonist of The Dragonet Prophecy and Escaping Peril. After being captured and trapped by Burn, she returned in Escaping Peril looking for vengeance and the SkyWing throne, but was killed by Queen Ruby (Tourmaline) during the royal challenge battle. Appearance Ex-Queen Scarlet had dark orange scales and enormous red-orange wings, as well as fierce, unfriendly, yellow eyes. She was described as being smaller than Kestrel, but slightly bigger than Clay, and deceptively strong in combat. Her voice was described as deeper and more slithery than Icicle's. A row of tiny rubies was embedded between the scales over both of her eyes, and more embedded rubies edged the top of her wings. She was said to be very beautiful, majestic and grand before her face was melted by Queen Glory. In Tui's annotation of the first book online, she said Scarlet's size wasn't because she was younger, but because she was naturally small in height. During the first book, part of the right side of her face was melted by Glory's venom. She was described in The Brightest Night: "The side of the SkyWing’s face was melted into a hideous dark mess, revealing a glimpse of her white jawbone underneath and pulling one of her yellow eyes down and blown out of proportion with the rest of her face. The rubies that had been embedded in her scales were gone above that eye, and so were all her earlier adornments - the golden chain mail, the medallions, the rings on her claws, the rubies on her wings. The only jewels left were the tiny rubies above her good eye, which glittered malevolently in the dim light."7 In Escaping Peril, ''the dragonets in the wingery descriped her face as melty-ish, and terrifying, even going as far as saying she probably could't stand to look in the mirror anymore. When Clay and Tsunami first met Scarlet, Tsunami used a scavenger sword to stab Scarlet on her tail. After they were imprisoned, she had a mark/scar on her tail where the sword impaled her. Peril described Scarlet's eyes as being uglier than Prince Cliff's eyes. Personality Scarlet was a violent, maniacal dragon. She was never afraid of conflict, which she demonstrated through her brutal arena, where she would make use of Peril (her Champion)'s deadly abilities (Firescales). She was a harsh and cold, yet very cunning ruler, someone who was not easily defeated or outsmarted (like Blister). She also believed that using fear would make her subjects carry out her orders unquestioned and unconcerned. She loves violence and bloodshed, and constantly uses the word "thrilling" in her sentences, annoying some dragons. She is also noted to be sarcastic, melodramatic and sadistic. Scarlet also showed psychopathic traits, as shown when she ruthlessly killed and lived for blood, showing no compassion whatsoever. She also used other dragons' ignorance to her advantage, such as when she lied to Peril about the black rocks, poisoned her food, and didn't tell her that Soar was her father. She also liked showing off her wealth, like most dragons would, and wore chain mail studded with rubies and amber drops and encrusted her eyebrows, scales, and wings with gems. Her riches were also displayed in her palace, including veins running along the floor made of out solid gold. She finds gore and death to be very "thrilling". This tendency also proved to be her worst weakness, when Clay was in the arena reluctantly fighting Peril, the "excitement" distracted her long enough for Glory to attack her with her RainWing venom. She became more bitter and vicious after being attacked by Glory and imprisoned by Burn, seeing those two as the source of her problems, making her a very vengeful character. She even believes she is the good guy, and that her plots of revenge are justified. Scarlet fiercely believed she was the rightful queen of the SkyWings, and swore vengeance when Ruby took the throne. She hated anyone competing with her and seems to have no problem about the many dragons she has killed. She also mentions that the War of SandWing Succession gives her more prisoners and less challengers, which means that she is clever on how to hold her position of authority. Biography Pre-Series Queen Scarlet was one of the longest-lived SkyWing queens, surviving fourteen challenges to the throne. She was also one of the most beautiful and powerful queens in all of Pyrrhia. No one had even tried to challenge her in almost nine years prior to ''The Dragonet Prophecy. This was mostly due to Peril because everyone was afraid of her. In The Dragonet Prophecy, it was said that she used the arena to intimidate her challengers. Scarlet was also one of the richest queens, with her throne room almost completely plated w is because she was the queen, and ordered her guards to take Kestrel back for trial and kill the other dragonet. Kestrel tried to flee with the dragonet with too much fire, Peril, but was burned upon contact with Peril's firescales, leaving burn scars. She was forced to flee alone, leaving her only daughter with Scarlet. For years, Kestrel feared that the hatchling had been killed by the deadly Queen Scarlet. Queen Scarlet named the dragonet Peril, and, due to her invulnerability and blazing hot claws that were shown to be able to melt through metal, she trained Peril as a killer and to be the champion of the SkyWings' arena. She made Peril burn the eggs that would be due to hatch on the brightest night. To ensure Peril's complete and utmost loyalty, she told her that Peril had killed her twin by burning him before they hatched and her mother attempted to kill her, but was thwarted by the SkyWing queen. Scarlet also told Peril she needed to eat black rocks to survive, which was a lie. When Peril got mad at Queen Scarlet for not telling anything about her real mother and refused to eat her black rocks, the diabolical queen poisoned her real food without telling her what she had done to make Peril more loyal and easily controlled. ith gold and other precious minerals. She decided to ally with Burn, perhaps because Burn offered her something in return, like the river that SkyWings and SandWings always fight over, and the MudWings in the great war and began to use the war to entertain herself. Scarlet would place prisoners against each other in the SkyWing Arena, claiming that if they won enough fights, they would go free, using Peril as her champion. It also mentions that no one had ever gone free before, because they died fighting Peril, the fireborn SkyWing. About eight years before, Kestrel, one of her most loyal soldiers, entered the breeding program and yielded one large egg with twin dragonets. Because one of the dragonets was born with too much fire, and the other too little, Scarlet ordered Kestrel to kill the dragonets and stay out of the program for the rest of her life (a SkyWing tradition). Despite this, Kestrel tried to flee with them, prompting Scarlet to change the order: if Kestrel killed one of the dragonets, she would be allowed to go free with the other. Kestrel killed the one with too little fire, her son, with her own claws, an act that haunted her for the rest of her life. Scarlet, however, revealed she had lied, her excuse is because she was the queen, and ordered her guards to take Kestrel back for trial and kill the other dragonet. Kestrel tried to flee with the dragonet with too much fire, Peril, but was burned upon contact with Peril's firescales, leaving burn scars. She was forced to flee alone, leaving her only daughter with Scarlet. For years, Kestrel feared that the hatchling had been killed by the deadly Queen Scarlet. is because she was the queen, and ordered her guards to take Kestrel back for trial and kill the other dragonet. Kestrel tried to flee with the dragonet with too much fire, Peril, but was burned upon contact with Peril's firescales, leaving burn scars. She was forced to flee alone, leaving her only daughter with Scarlet. For years, Kestrel feared that the hatchling had been killed by the deadly Queen Scarlet. is because she was the queen, and ordered her guards to take Kestrel back for trial and kill the other dragonet. Kestrel tried to flee with the dragonet with too much fire, Peril, but was burned upon contact with Peril's firescales, leaving burn scars. She was forced to flee alone, leaving her only daughter with Scarlet. For years, Kestrel feared that the hatchling had been killed by the deadly Queen Scarlet. Queen Scarlet named the dragonet Peril, and, due to her invulnerability and blazing hot claws that were shown to be able to melt through metal, she trained Peril as a killer and to be the champion of the SkyWings' arena. She made Peril burn the eggs that would be due to hatch on the brightest night. To ensure Peril's complete and utmost loyalty, she told her that Peril had killed her twin by burning him before they hatched and her mother attempted to kill her, but was thwarted by the SkyWing queen. Scarlet also told Peril she needed to eat black rocks to survive, which was a lie. When Peril got mad at Queen Scarlet for not telling anything about her real mother and refused to eat her black rocks, the diabolical queen poisoned her real food without telling her what she had done to make Peril more loyal and easily controlled. The Dragonet Prophecy Six years later, a scavenger stole treasure from Scarlet and fled. This led her to stumble across Clay and Tsunami, who had been escaping from their cave home in the mountain with the Talons of Peace. She told them to come with her after Clay tried to explain what they had been doing in the SkyWing territory for six years. She thought they had been stealing the jewels from her. To escape, Tsunami impaled her tail into the ground with the scavenger's sword, infuriating her. This led to her following their smoke signal. She captured the Dragonets of Destiny and Kestrel, killing Dune while Webs managed to escape through the river hole that Clay and Tsunami had used earlier to get out of the cave. Scarlet locked Sunny in a cage hanging above her hall, imprisoned Kestrel, used Glory as a living "artwork" and that Glory actually seemed to enjoy being, and put Clay, Tsunami, and Starflight into the SkyWing arena to fight to their deaths. She wanted to pit Starflight against Tsunami first, but Clay talked Scarlet out of it by denouncing her as "just another SeaWing", which offended Tsunami greatly. Scarlet then pitted Clay against Fjord (an IceWing). When Fjord was about to kill Clay, Tsunami distracted everyone, by launching herself off of her pedestal in an attempt to save Clay, tugging all the other prisoners with her along the wire connecting them. While everyone, including Fjord, was looking at the commotion, an unknown black sTheubstance (now known to be Glory's venom) splashed onto Fjord's face and eyes and almost immediately killed him, so Scarlet allowed Clay to pass. She held a dramatic trial the following day where Kestrel was sentenced to death, Osprey was killed, and Peril learned who her mother truly was. After Burn arrived, she imprisoned the three dragonets into Peril's room for causing the prisoners to sing The Dragonets are Coming. After Peril helped them escape, she betrayed them by telling the queen where they were to keep Clay with her in the Sky Kingdom. The next day, which was Scarlet's hatching day, Tsunami was pitted against an insane, water-deprived SeaWing named Gill, later on revealed to be her own father. Furthermore, Starflight and Tsunami had to fight against scavengers. They defeated two of the scavengers before Queen Scarlet decided to pit Starflight against a group of IceWings, a tribe that loathed NightWings. Before she could do so, Morrowseer came to Starflight's rescue and the NightWings with him proceeded to slaughter all the IceWing captives. This offended and angered Scarlet to a huge degree. Queen Scarlet then pitted Peril against Clay, knowing Peril was using the Champion's Shield in an attempt to save her mother, Kestrel, from death. During the battle, Scarlet told Clay to use his venom, not knowing that it was Glory who possessed that ability. Ironically, upon asking him to do so, Glory reared up, easily broke her chain, and spat a stream of venom at Burn, who pushed Scarlet in front of her. She was then presumed to have been killed during the chaos, with her daughter, Ruby, succeeding her. The Lost Heir Scarlet did not formally appear. However, two SeaWing soldiers claimed that they had seen a group of SkyWings arguing while on patrol, some of them claiming that Scarlet was still alive and was the rightful SkyWing queen, while others were shouting, "For Ruby!" At this point, the tribe was split into these two groups, none knowing for certain what had happened to Queen Scarlet. It isn't revealed until the next book that Scarlet was, in fact, alive and in hiding. The Hidden Kingdom Scarlet used a magical artifact created by an animus dragon, called a dreamvisitor, to talk to Glory via her dreams. It is said that her face has become a "smeared mess". When Glory asks where she is, Scarlet says that she will tell her if the RainWing promised to free her. Glory refused to do so, and this caused the former queen to become angry because she believed Glory owed her for damaging her formerly good looks with her RainWing venom. She also says that she knows where the dragonets are. It is likely she was bluffing, as she never attacked them. The Dark Secret Scarlet does not formally appear, but she is mentioned by Burn to another dragon (her brother, Smolder), who has kidnapped her and is holding her prisoner in her stronghold because she "is in no condition to fight Ruby for the throne". However, it is believed that Burn has been lying and wants to stuff her, which wouldn't be such a big surprise. The Brightest Night Now Ex-Queen Scarlet was found by Sunny in Burn's stronghold, revealing Burn and her forces had taken her away after Glory attacked her. She tried terrifying Sunny at night, but a scavenger named Flower (a pet of Smolder's) made her feel better. Scarlet was held in Burn's weirdling collection and destroyed as much of it as she could in her frustration. She destroyed a stuffed NightWing, which Smolder mentions would make Burn furious. She later escaped with assistance from Peril, during an Outclaw siege on Burn's stronghold. Sunny could see Scarlet and Peril's wings flying off, away from the fight. Before her rescue, she appeared in Peril's dreams. After the attack, she vanished again. Moon Rising Over the course of Moon Rising, Ex-Queen Scarlet used a dreamvisitor to appear in the dreams of Icicle, a student at the Jade Mountain Academy and an heiress to the IceWing throne. Peril was also thought to be Scarlet by Starflight. It was revealed that Scarlet was keeping Icicle and Winter's brother, Hailstorm prisoner. Scarlet made a bargain with Icicle, telling her that if she killed the Dragonets of Destiny she would release her brother. At the end of the book, after failing to kill Starflight, Icicle presumably fled to the Rainforest Kingdom to assassinate Queen Glory. In the epilogue, Ex-Queen Scarlet is seen at her hideout with Chameleon (In his NightWing form) trying to get information on Icicle's assassination attempt with the dreamvisitor. She dreamvisits Peril and discovers that Icicle did not succeed in killing the dragonets, and becomes frustrated. Scarlet then contemplates killing the dragonets herself, perhaps from a distance. Now annoyed, she shouts at Chameleon for making a tapping noise with a object and asks him to show her what it is. The object, is of course, Darkstalker's Scroll. Winter Turning Scarlet is first seen in the seventh Wings Of Fire book in the prologue. After Hailstorm was captured by a group of SkyWing soldiers, he is brought to Queen Scarlet. She puts a necklace around his neck and everything goes black. This is presumably how he became Pyrite. Scarlet is then mentioned when Icicle fails to kill the Dragonets of Destiny. After Icicle escaped Jade Mountain and was hiding out at the Volcano where the Night Kingdom was, Icicle refuses to sleep because she knows if she does Scarlet will dreamvisit her and she will lose the deal she had with Scarlet to get Hailstorm back. Whenever she got tired, she let the small rivers of lava wake her with the burning pains. She was put to sleep by RainWing sleeping darts and taken back to the Rain Kingdom. Afterwards she is seen dreamvisiting Winter when he and the rest of the winglet go and try to find her secret base. She tells him that she knows he isn't really going to kill Glory and threatens to kill his brother in agonizingly painful ways as punishment. In a desperate attempt to get away from Scarlet, Winter rips off his pouch carrying the skyfire to yell for help in his mind for Moon, and Scarlet disappears along with the dream when Moon shakes him awake. She is later heard yelling at Chameleon, in the form of Shapeshifter, who offers to go grab Pyrite so Scarlet can kill the one who was inside the SkyWing mask, which was Winter's brother, Hailstorm. Escaping Peril Scarlet is first seen in the prologue of Escaping Peril. She orders Ruby, Vermillion, Hawk, a unknown dragon nicknamed "Kidney breath" (possibly Osprey) and more unknown SkyWings of importance into her throne room. There, she reveals to the dragons that she has secretly kept the dragonet with to much fire, now named Peril, alive in hope of creating her into a weapon. Scarlet then demonstrates Peril's power by making her burn all the surviving eggs set to hatch on the Brightest Night. This act scares all of the dragons, and makes them realize and fear how powerful Scarlet has become as she has made the most dangerous creature imaginable: Peril. At the beginning of the book, Queen Ruby visits Jade Mountain to collect the body of Carnelian and negotiate about the arrestment of Sora and Umber with Clay. While there, Scarlet is spotted flying towards the group by a SkyWing guard. Ruby sees too, and speaks Scarlet's name which causes Peril, who was eavesdropping on the scene with Turtle, have a flashback to when she last saw the great Ex-Queen. The flashback is set the night after Peril rescues Scarlet from Burn's Stronghold and they are hiding in the wastelands that make up the border of the Ice Kingdom and the Kingdom of Sand. Scarlet wants Peril to kill Ruby for her, but Peril refuses saying that she wasn't a dragon killing dragon anymore and that Clay says that she could be whoever she wants to be. Scarlet gets mad at Peril mentioning Clay, and says that she will not be happy if Peril doesn't kill Ruby. Peril tells Scarlet that she will not kill the SkyWing Queen, and that that is her final answer. The next morning, Scarlet ditches Peril and disappears. When Peril comes back to her senses, she sees Ruby and her guards getting ready to attack Scarlet. Peril flees her hiding spot and flies outside of the Academy to go and protect Clay from harm. Before she reaches Scarlet though, the old Queen stops, screams at the SkyWings saying how they are all traitors and disloyal to their tribe, and hurls an object at the group before fleeing back to where she came from. The object Scarlet throws ends up being Queen Glory's severed head. While the guards and Tsunami chase after her, Turtle discovers that it wasn't actually Glory, and was enchanted to make a MudWing's head look like hers. Ever since the incident, Peril decides that it is her responsibility to go find her old guardian and kill her for the safety of Clay and everybody else Scarlet intends on harming. Turtle decides to join her on the search for the old Queen. After accidentally harming Winter in Possibility and fleeing from Qibli, Moon, and Turtle, Peril runs into her long lost father, Chameleon. Chameleon (In his SkyWing shape Soar) introduces himself and takes Peril to Scarlet. Peril is surprised to the Ex-Queen is there and realizes that Chameleon betrayed her. Scarlet realizes that Chameleon didn't tell her about his shape shifting and she says to him "So you still haven't told her. I love it." Scarlet then leaps on Chameleon making Peril think that Scarlet is trying to kill her father. She almost tries to go and help him, but is stopped by the curiosity of wanting to know what her father didn't tell her about. But Scarlet was not attacking Chameleon, but instead trying to rip off his pouch containing his different dragon shapes. Chameleon transforms into his old, lime green RainWing self. Scarlet shows to her how he used magic to create his SkyWing self and that he enchanted a necklace made of thick metal for her that can take away Peril's firescales forever. Chameleon offers the necklace to Peril and Peril takes it and puts it on. Suddenly, she loses her firescales...as well as losing her memories of Clay and becoming completely and forever loyal to Scarlet as part of the spell's secret side effects. Peril becomes happy and agrees to kill Ruby and get back Scarlet's throne. They go to the Sky Kingdom to get back her throne and start by kidnapping Ruby's son, Prince Cliff, from the palace wingery. Because of Peril, nobody wants to attack Scarlet because they believe that Peril would kill them because they don't know that she lost her firescales. The Ex-Queen, Chameleon, Peril, and Cliff settle down in Scarlet's old throne room and wait for Ruby to arrive. Scarlet orders Vermillion to come to her and she scolds her son for not following any of the orders she asked while she dreamvisited him in her Weirdling tower cell: bringing a army back to rescue her, try to secretly assassinate Ruby, etc. She assures to Vermillion that he will be punished. Ruby arrives early the next day with a squadron of SkyWings. Her plans to defeat Scarlet were foiled, for Scarlet was holding Ruby's beloved son, Prince Cliff hostage, and would make Peril kill him if she took another step. Ruby surrenders to her and is imprisoned. Scarlet orders Peril and Chameleon to watch Cliff on the highest tower in the Palace. After Cliff escapes and reunites with his mother, Scarlet appears and tells Peril to burn them. She refuses, finally realizing she is done with Scarlet and her games, and Peril takes off her necklace and regains her old self. Ruby, then, officially challenges Scarlet to a fight for the throne. Ruby was beaten down by Scarlet and was losing the fight until Peril learns by Chameleon that Ruby was Tourmaline all along, and when she destroys Ruby's earring, Ruby transforms into the long lost SkyWing princess. Scarlet says she made up Ruby because Tourmaline was becoming too dangerous. Tourmaline then finishes the duel by snapping Scarlet's neck and shouting "For the SkyWings!" ending Scarlet's life and her reign as Queen of the SkyWings. Darkness of Dragons Though not making a formal appearance, it is revealed that Scarlet was married and that several guests at her wedding were mysteriously assassinated (most likely by Cobra). Quotes "How thrilling!" "How have you not killed yourself already, SandWing?" ''- To Dune when he tried to protect the dragonets of destiny in The Dragonet Prophecy "''SMOLDER! I HEAR YOU DOWN THERE! If you don't bring me more water ''right now, I swear I will catch that scavenger of yours and EAT HER." - To Smolder while Scarlet was imprisoned in Burn's Stronghold. ''"I have an IceWing pawn that should be thrillingly useful." - Moon Rising "He was obviously a lost cause. Kept making this hero face to me, like I'm the bad guy and he's coming to right all wrongs. Excuse me, who got attacked by her own artwork and then kidnapped by her ally and then blackmailed by her champion mid-rescue while meanwhile her own daughter was stealing her throne? Who's the one with the hideous face maiming? Whose throne is currently OCCUPIED by a PRETENDER who can NEVER have beaten me in a challenge before? WHO had her whole life RUINED and demolished and shattered by those STUPID HORRIBLE DRAGONETS?" "ME, THAT'S WHO! I'm the victim here! Someone should be all heroically trying to help ME right all wrongs! Where's my rotten cavalry of loyal idiots?" - Scarlet arguing with Chameleon in Winter Turning "You owe me!" "You sound like you're digesting an overweight grizzly bear," - ''To Peril in ''Escaping Peril "You think you're so smart, pathetic daughter. But your love for this dragonet is a weakness. After I kill you, do you know what I'm going to do to him? I'm going to make him fear me. I'm going to make him so loyal to me that he'll forget your name. He'll obey my every command." ''- To Ruby, about Cliff ''"He'll be my adorable little weapon, and he'll forget all about you. I will be his everything." ''- To Ruby, about Cliff ''"What use are diamonds to me? If I want something, I don't pay for it; I ''take it. And right now, groveling prince, I only want two things: my throne back --and vengeance" - To Winter, using the dreamvisitor ''"Little SandWing, you think Burn is what you have to worry about right now. She's not. ''I ''am. I'll be free soon...free...and I'll be coming for all of my enemies...Think about ''that while you try to fall asleep... what I'm going to do to your friends when I get my claws on them...how messy and thrilling it's going to be..." - Scarlet to Sunny in Burn's weirdling tower. "''Here's some interesting information for you. Your queen doesn't want her nephew back as badly as you think. I visited her dreams for a proposal: Help me drag my conniving daughter off ''my throne, and she could have him. Would you believe she turned me down? She said he'd been mourned already, and her duty was to protect the yet-unlost lives of her subjects. Doesn't that make you furious, ice dragon?" ''"Dragonets. I never saw the appeal." "Who would dare challenge me now? You, my dreaming daughter? Go ahead and try. If you even think about, you know who's talons will find your throat in the middle of the night."- A thought of Ruby's, describing her mother's viciousness. "I thought your power was limited, something about consequences, something, blah." ''- To Chameleon Trivia * The deceased SkyWing Dragonet of Destiny may have been Scarlet's own dragonet, as the egg was stolen from the palace. This has yet to be confirmed, however, it also has yet to be disproven. * She had been mistakenly described with amber eyes when they are actually yellow. * Tui admitted before one of her favorite words was "thrilling", just like Scarlet.8 * She had killed her mother, sisters, and eleven daughters before Tourmaline challenged her to obtain the throne. * The name "Scarlet" implies a red color, yet Scarlet is ironically orange. Tui has admitted that this was an oversight on her part, and regrets her choice to make Scarlet orange. * She is one of the seven characters whose name is ironic, the others being Quickdeath, Quickstrike, Slaughter, Coconut, Secretkeeper, and Chameleon. * Queen Scarlet states in ''Escaping Peril that no dragon ever questions who a queen takes as her dragonet, although the only reason why was probably because the SkyWings feared her. * She is one of the identifiable four dragons that are in the cover art of book they aren't the POV of, the other three being Princess Anemone, Prince Turtle, and Cricket. * It is revealed in Darkness of Dragons that Queen Scarlet was married, although it is unknown to who she was married to. * Scarlet may have been responsible for her husband's death as Tui stated that his death was related to his marriage to Scarlet. * Tui says that her husband may have been forced into marriage. * Scarlet was one of the longest living queens, ruling for longer than 30 years. * "In Scarlet's character profile, the word written in big letters at the top is 'VAIN'." Tui determined that vanity would be Scarlet's defining characteristic while searching for traits that are unusual to find in a villain.9 * Ex-Queen Scarlet is one of the few dragons depicted to have jewels embedded in her body, the others being Ex-Princess Onyx, Queen Moorhen, Princess Snowfox, and Queen Vigilance. * She is the first dragon on a cover to be seen wearing jewelry or another item. The second is Turtle, the third is Anemone, the fourth is Qibli, and the fifth is Cricket. Category:Royalty Category:SkyWings Category:First Arc Antagonists Category:Second Arc Antagonists Category:Antagonists